Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

Gate passedSeeker and aboveModern transcription — not a facsimileJacob Boehme (1575–1624)PUBLIC DOMAIN as published. Boehme d. 1624; the Sparrow translation is 1656. Per-part determination MADE 2026-08-29: the eight front-matter segments carrying the 2009 electronic edition own introductory apparatus were withheld (three excised in full, five redacted in part where a public-domain title block or Boehme text shared the page). The remaining 5,022 segments are public domain and are open at seeker tier.905 of 1000 segments carry a modern register · 343 pp

Jacob Boehme — the works in English, and one in Frencheditor’s preface to the volume

Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.

The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.

Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.

That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.

The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.

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1where sthey were not, there the history-priests 3 the Apostles misled them, as may be clearly seen in the disciples. Galatians. 22. And so the kingdom of Christ grew not in power only, but for the most part in the history ; the saints born in Christ, they confirm that many times with great wonders [or miracles], and the history-priests of Baal, they always built upon those [miracles of the saints] that which was good for the promoting virtue and good manners ; many brought forth thistles and thorns, that they might make strife and wars ; many sought only great honour, dignity, and glory, that it should be conferred upon the Church of Christ and her ministers, as it may be seen in Popery, out of what root it is grown. And it came so far, that they mingled the Jewish ceremonies in their doings, as if the justification of a poor sinner did lie in them, because they were of divine appoint47 738 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 26 ment ; for which cause, the Apostles held the first Council at Jerusalem, where the Holy Ghost concluded, that they should only cleave to Christ in true love one to another, and that was the only justification before God. 23. But it availed not, pride would erect its throne, and set it above Christ, the devil would be 1 fair, subtle God ; and they made l glosses, that they might pretences and . . , , , . ,

2expositions of bring it to pass in such a way, that the simple people might not take notice of it ; there the keys of Peter must govern the city, and they drew 2 Jus together with the keys 2 divine authority to them, and so could use the divine power in deeds and wonders no more ; for they desired to be rich and wealthy upon earth, and not to be poor with Christ, who in this world (as himself witnesseth) had not whereon to lay his head ; they would not be such Christians in power and wonders ; as Adam, who would not live in the power, but in a great heap [of earth], that he might have something to take hold of. And here may be rightly seen our misery which Adam brought us into, that our essences always reach after the spirit of this world, and desire only to fill themselves with a great heap, from whence Adam and we all have got such a swelled, gross, untoward body, full of sickness, contrariety, and contentious desires. 24. Now when the historical Christendom and the true Christians grew together, the sceptre was always among the learned, who exalted themselves, Ch. 2G] OP THE FEAST OF PENTECOST 739 and made themselves potent, and great ; and the simple [Church] yielded to it as right ; and yet there was a desire after the kingdom of God found in men, viz. the noble Word of God (which had 1 imprinted itself in the promise [in paradise], in l imaged or the light of life, and which was made stirring by in the mind.

3Christ) that drave them indeed to the fear of God. And then they built great 2 houses of stone, and 2 temples or i-i , , -IT i churches. called every one thither ; and they said that the Holy Ghost was powerful there, and they must come thither; 3 besides, they durst be so impudent 8 saying, DO f -, i as we say. as to say (when they were tound to be so wicked and not as wo do and malicious) that the Holy Ghost was powerfully in the mouth of the wicked. 25. But, thou hypocrite, thou liest ; if thou art ungodly, thou canst not raise 4the dead, thou canst 4 the dead in IITI _ . trespasses convert none that in this world lie drowned in and sins, sins ; thou mayest stir the heart of the believer indeed (through thy voice) which is a work of the spirit, but thou bringest forth none out of death [into life] ; it is an impossible thing. For if thou wilt convert a poor sinner, which is drowned in sin, and lieth captive in the anger, then the Holy Ghost must be in thy mouth, and thy essences must take hold of his, and then thy light will shine in him, and thou shalt raise him out of the death of sins, and with thy love, in thy tincture, catch him ; and then he will come to thee with a hearty desire, longing after the kingdom of heaven ; and then thou art his confessor, and hast the keys 740 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 26 1 the Holy Ghost 2 Or fashion. 8 disputations, the and contro false power,

The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.

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Commentary

whole issue ·

Cross-estate[P-V]translated_asboehme:2:1:003

This English 'Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence' and boehme:11 are the same work in two languages — and the French is not just any translation. It is Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's own: 'Des trois principes de l'essence divine', issued by the Périsse brothers of the rue Mercière. Saint-Martin learned German in his fifties expressly to read Boehme, and spent his last years translating him. The estate therefore holds, side by side, the text that formed the Unknown Philosopher and the form in which he gave it to France — the single most direct documentary link between the two founders of this corpus.

→ boehme:11